Vigorous retelling of Homer's Iliad, relating the incidents of the great siege of Troy, from the quarrel of the chiefs to the ransoming of Hector's body. Ages 8-12

172 pages

$9.95

OF GLAUCUS AND DIOMED

[81] AND now the Trojans, in their turn, were driven
back, for they could make no
stand against the Greeks. Now there was one
of the sons of King Priam who
was a very wise prophet, and knew all that
men should do to win the favour
and help of the gods, and his name was
Helĕnus. This man went up to
Hector, and said to him and to
Ænēas, who was standing near
him: "Make the army fall back and get as
close to the walls as may be, for
it will be safer there than in the open
plain. And go through the ranks,
and speak to the men, and put as much
courage into them as you can. And
when you have done this, do you, Hector, go
into the city, and tell your
mother to gather together the daughters of
Troy, and go with them to the
temple of Athené, taking with her
the most precious robe that she has,
and lay the
[82] robe on the knees of the goddess, and
promise to sacrifice twelve heifers,
and beseech her to have pity on us and to
keep Diomed from the walls. Never
did I see so fierce a man; even
Achilles himself was not so terrible as he
is, so dreadful is he and so fierce. Go,
and come back as soon as you can,
and we will do what we can to bear up
against the Greeks while you are
away."

So Hector went through the ranks, bidding
the men be of good courage; and
when he had done this he went into the city.

And now the Trojans had a little rest. The
way in which this happened shall
now be told.

Sarpēdon and Lycian had a cousin, Glaucus by
name: the two were sons of
brothers. This Glaucus, being one of the
bravest of men, went in front of
the Trojan line to meet Diomed. When Diomed
saw him, he said: "Tell me,
mighty man of valour, who you are, for I
have never seen you before; for
this is a bold thing that you have done to
come out in front of your
comrades and to stand against me. Truly
those men whose children come in my
way in battle are
un- [83] lucky. Tell me then who you are, for if you
are a god from heaven, then I
will not fight with you. Already to-day
have I done enough fighting with
them, for it is an unlucky thing to do.
King Lycurgus, in the land of
Thrace, fought with a god, and it was a bad
thing for him that he did so,
for he did not live long. He drove Bacchus,
the god of wine, into the sea.
But the other gods were angry with him for
this cause, and Zeus made him
blind, and he perished miserably. But if
you are no god, but a mortal man,
then draw near that I may kill you with my
spear."

Glaucus said: "Brave Diomed, why do you ask
who I am, and who was my
father, and my father's father? The
generations of men are like the leaves
on the trees. In the spring they shoot
forth, and in autumn they fall, and
the wind blows them to and fro. And then
when the spring comes others shoot
forth, and these also fall in their time.
So are the generations of men;
one goes and another comes. Still, if you
would hear of what race I come,
listen. In a certain city of Greece which
is called Corinth there dwelt a
great warrior, Bellerŏphon by name. Some
[84] one spoke evil of this man falsely to the
King of the city, and the King
believed this false thing, and plotted his
death. He was ashamed to kill
him, but he sent him with a message to the
King of Lycia. This message was
written on a tablet and the tablet was
folded up in a cover, and the cover
was sealed. But on the tablet was written:
'This is a wicked man; cause
him to die.' So Bellerŏphon travelled to
Lycia. And when he was come to
the King's palace, the King made a great
feast for him. For nine days did
the feast last, and every day an ox was
killed and eaten. On the morning of
the tenth day the King said: 'Let me see
the message which you have
brought.' And when he had read it he
thought how he might cause the man to
die. First he sent him to conquer a great
monster that there was in that
country, called the Chimæra. Many men tried
to conquer it, but it had
killed them all. It had the head of a lion,
and its middle parts were those
of a goat, and it had the tail of a serpent;
and it breathed out flames of
fire. This monster he killed, the gods
helping him. Then the King sent him
against a very fierce
[85] tribe of men, who were called the
Solymi. These he conquered after
much fighting, for, as he said himself,
there never were warriors stronger
than they. After this he fought the
Amazons, who were women fighting with
the arms of men, and these also he
conquered. And when he was coming back
from fighting the Amazons, the King set an
ambush against him, choosing for
it the bravest men in the whole land of
Lycia. But Bellerŏphon killed
them all, and came back safe to the King's
palace. When the King saw this,
he said to himself: 'The gods love this
man; he cannot be wicked.' So he
asked him about himself, and Bellerŏphon
told him the whole truth. Then
the King divided his kingdom with him, and
gave him his daughter to wife.
Three sons he had, of whom one was the
father of Sarpēdon and one was my
father. And when my father sent me hither
he said: 'Always seek to be the
first, and to be worthy of those who have
gone before.' This, then, brave
Diomed, is the race to which I belong."

When Diomed heard this he was very glad, and
said: "It is well that we did
not
[86] fight, for we ought to be friends, as our
fathers were before us. Long ago
Œneus entertained Bellerŏphon in his
house. For twenty days he kept him.
And when they parted they gave great gifts
to each other, the one a belt
embroidered with purple, and the other a cup
of gold with a mouth on either
side of it. Now Œneus was my grandfather,
as Bellerŏphon was yours. If
then you should come to Corinth you will be
my guest, and I will be yours if
I go to the land of Lycia. But now we will
not fight together. There are
many Trojans and allies of the Trojans whom
I may kill if I can overcome
them, and there are many Greeks for you to
fight with and conquer, if you
can. But we two will not fight together.
And now let us exchange our
armour, that all men may know that we are
friends."

So the two chiefs jumped down from their
chariots and exchanged their
armour. And men said afterwards that
Glaucus had lost his wits, for he
gave armour of gold in exchange for armour
of brass, armour that was worth a
hundred oxen for armour that was worth nine
only.

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